yep. you nailed it. most Windows users don't know an MP3 from a spoon, and somehow this MS exec is trying to make them seem like the intelligentsia of the tech world, talking about the choices they've made... MS is the opposite of choice... people buy WinTel because that's what they have at work... and they're paying for it now, with 60,000+ viruses and vulnerabilities in Windows. let 'em crash and burn, and let them listen to their low-fi WMA files from Napster too... i'll be kicking it with my iPod in the meantime

So, windows users don't know a mp3 from a spoon? That's interesting, as I wonder why Apple would go through the trouble ($$$) to make it available to M$ users ? Could it ($$$) be $omthing more to it ($$$) than juSt one-upping M$ ?
Oh, and speaking of choice, elegance and all,seems no one mentioned Linux. Hmmmm, DL whatever/wherever/however, and keep the change ($$$) folks, we do it for the shear joy of it. Support too!
C'mon, slick adds don't make a great OS do they ? hehe Jaquar folks are learning, slowly. ;-)

There is a reason that many of the old linux enthusiasts now own macs...

Why be bitter, iTunes dosen't cost anything. And if apple is so bad and so insignificant why would he even care. Besides, who will do the free R&D. M$ should be happy to 2nd (or less) in innovation and first in profit. That's what M$ has always been about since the cpm days. It's just like a silent movie comedy to me,. .. think about it and enjoy. :)

So, Microsoft has Apple envy again. Big deal! They know they mostly write inferior code, generally produce inferior products, and as Steve Jobs once stated they "have no taste." If people want to use the inspid Windows Media Player, go for it. For me, my XP machine uses QuickTime and now iTunes as default applications. It takes more than FrogDesign eye candy to make a good app. To Microsoft: focus on making your products secure, stable, and bug free instead of trashing Apple. To Windows drones: I'm sorry you don't own Macintoshes with iPods; you're missing out on a good thing.

The one good point that Windows users have made is that iTunes won't play WMA format. No matter what excuse Steve Jobs has for not supporting WMA, it is the Windows standard format, and many Windows users will justifiably not switch to iTunes because it won't play their existing libraries.

WMA was created by Microsoft so that they did not have to play the standards game and could achieve vendor lock. It is ironic that they would now complain that Apple's use of a standardized format would be a bad thing. LMAO! And regardless, it would be trivial for Apple to add support for WMA at some point in the future, when they felt like giving both Windows and Mac users the choice. I also find it curious why other online music vendors would want to choose a proprietary format such as WMA over a standards-based format such as AAC, except for maybe to win favors from the Borg.

Other than the fact that iToons only offers 128 kbs songs, there is so much more freedom for the user who is PAYING for their songs. The feeling of actual "ownership" exists with iTunes, with flexibility and none of the "traps" WMA and Microsoft are trying to tie-in with their "open" format. Microsoft is trying to perpetrate a joke with this response.

With iTunes, the price is right, the restraints are limited, and everything's legal for the end-user. I do wish the songs were 256 kbs, but that's the only problem I see when compared to all the other download services - who offer no better sound quality either.

Now if Apple would port OS X to the x86 hardware, it would be "so long Microsoft" for me!

I downloaded iTunes to my PC at work yesterday, as did most of my co-workers, and literally minutes later we were sharing music, something we've been unable to do to date. By sharing I don't mean we were copying files to each others hard drives, instead each PC was acting like a radio station, with my PC being able to play music from another PC and so forth. When I got home last night my daughter had already downloaded iTunes onto her PC and I installed it on the family/home office PC, and again we were sharing music. I have never owned a Mac, or an ipod, but will be getting an ipod very soon I think. As for not being able to play any existing WM9 audio files I don't see that as a big deal. We never used the Windows Media Player to buy music online, I didn't even know you could purchase music using the Windows Media Player like we can with iTunes. I also read Dave Festers comments and don't see much about love of music in there. Maybe he should be managing a different department?

All this crap about locking in the user, proprietary, anti-choice...

Some facts:
- iTunes is the only Mac/Windows option out there. And that while the average mac user is more inclined to spend money on music...
- iTMS maybe only sells AAC, but iTunes will happily handle mp3, AAC, WAV and AIFF in all flavors and compressions - or lossless. Or get a plugin from soundforge to do your favorite OGG thing if so inclined. Does that mean they lock the user in for not using 100% WMA (which to date is a closed format)?
- your iPod can handle a lot more than just iTMS songs. And there are portable players that handle AAC. But iTunes, iPod and iTMS are 100% compatible and foolproof. That's an offering none of the other players have.
- To date the iTMS restrictions are the nicest ones around. To me it feels like I own the music, and have even more freedom than with a CD. Let's hope they'll up the compression-quality just a bit more in order to get the same sound quality and we'll be in music heaven.

OTOH, try and visit any music store other than iTMS on a mac and you'll read: Windows only, Internet Explorer, WMA. How's that for choice?

For the benefit of the commenter who bemoaned iTunes' bitrate choice: iTunes offers 128 Kbps songs, but those are AACs, which sound as good as an mp3 encoded at a very high bitrate (and probably better than a WMA could ever dream of). Essentially, AAC offers high quality at a lower bitrate.

What's the big deal about WMA? I'm tired of hearing friends complain about Windows Media Player crashing. I use it a little, but its no big deal.

I downloaded iTunes and it has run on my WinXP machine beautifully. I even figured out how to get the music that I had just purchased onto my MP3 player (no, it doesn't play AAC files). So far, it works for me, and the music store is easy to shop. Purchases and downloads went fine.

If you don't like it, don't use it! No one is forcing you. As for me, so long buymusic.com.

Actually, eMusic (to date) has the best user agreements around. Full quality Lame -standard VBR encoding, all you can eat downloading, and still no restrictions.

... Which is why it's going down the tube, I guess.

OK... again with MS vs the world
If windows users devoted 1 percent of the time other os users devote to finding fault with MAC OS (which is just FreeBSD Unix repackaged) or for that matter linux... well imagine lmao
The only reason people whinge about MS faults, percieved or real is that the OS is relevant, it is used my the overwhelming majority of computer users and they care.
Macs are relaevant to the very small percentage of users who use them and understandably they are defensive about having committed to something "different" to the rest of the world. I probably doesnt help when apple market their products based on the look of the case rather than its ability to perform?
As someone who runs 9 Unix and 5 Windows based servers as well as network with macs, pcs and many other boring stuff. I just think that your average XP userwho takes the time to right click occassionally, is getting a damn fine experience, especially with reguard to music and video.

All this Windows and Mac bashing are not really conductive to the discussion at hand. So people need to get back to what is under the discussion here, not which platform is in general superior than the other.
I find it ironic that Microsoft is preaching choice, considering its tradition of questionable business practices and its "monopoly" status. It is furthermore ironic given that Windows Media Player does not natively support MP3, which is still by far the format of choice and above all an OPEN standard. Lastly and most importantly, given that all the other legal music services available on the PC platform mostly only support Windows Media format and thus a limited range of music players that support WMV format, Microsoft is in effect pushing for a de facto standardization of its Windows Media format, and this is hardly pro-consumer choice.

Embrace and extend. Face it, they're not very nice people who have Napoleon complexes that don't give a hoot about established standards. The sheer arrogance and unneighborly behavior make for a "computing dark ages" as predicted back in the 1980's. They stifle innovation on a grand scale.

Selfishness, greed, and, yes, evil (sorry) have put our world in the situation that its in now. Aren't we better than this as a species? My guess is yes, but, the evidence to the contrary is significant.

Bottom line: Windows XP and WiMP don't play MP3 files with the same fidelity that other platforms do -- even with the same speakers (I've tested this personally). Windows-only file formats should be scrutinized much more thoroughly; a platform-specific file format should be kept to a minimum regardless of what type of machine one uses. It seems more like the days of TRS-80 cassette tapes rather than the superintegrated data streams of science fiction.

Oh yeah, technological dark ages...

Hey my tilt,

If you honestly think that Mac OS X is "just FreeBSD Unix repackaged" then you are either incedibly ignorant, or just too stupid to understand. In either case I'd suggest you refrain from commenting further on matters which are clearly over your head.

Go crawl back into your Microsoft-centric cave and write more checks to Mr. Gates. It's luddites like you that Microsoft can't get enough of.

Ostensibly M$' official response to iTMS for Windows is emblematic of Apple's broad siding their intentions to make WMP DRM de facto.

The alliance with AOL contradicts comments made earlier in the year that M$ was the preferred music download partner!

Now how soon will Apple launch a movie download service for both Mac and Windows? The template is there.

does not the frog need the pond
does not the mountian need the storm
....................................
does not your &$$ need kicking